Georgette Braun: Abandoned Rockford houses creep people out

Sunday

Oct 27, 2013 at 10:01 AMOct 27, 2013 at 10:01 AM

Georgette Braun Staff writer @georgettebraun

On Thursday morning, I forgot that part of West State Street is closed for revamping.

So, on my way to the Register Star News Tower along the Rock River on East State Street, I hit a roadblock on Central Avenue. I'd just appeared on TV at the WREX studio on Auburn Street to talk about fun things to do for the weekend before Halloween. To circle back to Auburn, I turned onto Irving Avenue and then onto Andrews Street.

That's where a tidbit of news I'd read earlier that morning struck me: that more than 27 percent of houses are vacant in an area bounded by School Street, Preston Street, Daisyfield Road and Kilburn Avenue. I was right in the thick of it.

And for every half dozen or so homes along the street and intersecting ones hauntingly decorated with ghouls and pumpkins, it seemed there was a way creepier house — an abandoned one, with broken or boarded-up windows.

He'd just dropped off his toddler at his mom's house on Oakwood Avenue when I stopped to talk with him.

"There are a lot of slumlords; kids vandalize the houses and drug guys are using (in them)," Purifoy said. "The city should tear them down and make the slumlords rent to decent people."

Indeed, many, if not most, of the 100 or so houses that have been abandoned for more than six months in that area will be torn down, though it may take up to 10 years to revitalize the entire area, Ron Clewer, chief executive of the Rockford Housing Authority, told me.

The area, where 52 percent of households live below the federal poverty level, has the largest concentration of boarded-up homes in Rockford, he said. Throughout the city, Clewer said, about 5,000 houses are vacant or are "incredibly unhealthy."

He said every one of the 1,600 dwellings within the School-Preston-Daisyfield-Kilburn boundary has been assessed by the housing authority and assigned a color: Red means it's bad; yellow, it needs improvement, and green "is a go."

"There are very few greens," Clewer said.

He said he'll talk with Rockford Fire Department officials to see whether firefighters might burn down some of the houses for training purposes. Other houses might have parts that can be salvaged. If an abandoned house is in a block where most of the houses have been assigned green and yellow status, the red-colored house might be rebuilt.

City and Winnebago County housing authorities have applied for a $28 million grant, part of which would be used to tear down boarded-up houses and to rebuild others in the area. And private investors are being sought to aid in the transformation that calls for tearing down the Fairgrounds Valley complex and replacing it with new homes and apartments for people who need financial support for housing and those who pay market rates.

The federal money also could be used to address concerns about the Concord Commons complex and to help build a grocery store and health facilities. Officials will find out after Jan. 1 if the grant is approved.

It can't be soon enough. Abandoned houses haunt the area and Rockford as a whole. Neither kids nor adults should be exposed to such creepiness.